EU Needs Independence From U.S.: Commissioner
"The choice is between an independent, European Europe and a Europe under American influence," French Gaullist Michel Barnier told Reuters in an interview before an unprecedented convention on the future of Europe opens this week.
"This is not a criticism of the United States, but we need to think about our own weaknesses," he added, anxious to dispel any whiff of traditional French anti-Americanism.
For Barnier, who is close to French President Jacques Chirac, one of the choices facing the yearlong convention is whether Europe wants to be just a regional power or a major player in global politics.
"It is up to Europe to get its own act together," he said.
The convention, which opens on Thursday, will bring together national and European parliamentarians, representatives of the 15 member governments and 13 candidate countries and of the Executive European Commission for a yearlong debate on reforming the EU for the 21st century.
The 54-year-old community, originally designed for six countries, could become paralyzed when it enlarges from 2004 unless it profoundly overhauls its creaking structures.
"It is realistic and desirable that the final proposal of this convention should be a constitutional treaty," Barnier said.
Such a document would set out EU "ambitions, values, common and community policies, incorporate citizens' rights and recall what institutions and methods serve this project", he said.
Among the issues up for discussion is how to make the EU's common foreign and security policy, and its fledgling defense capability, more effective.
Barnier said opinion polls showed an overwhelming majority of Europeans want the bloc to play a bigger role in the world, even in countries skeptical about other aspects of European integration.
The convention's first task should be to go back to first principles and decide what EU countries wanted to do together, before examining how to reform its institutional structures.